Help please - 2nd burned video card same system

[EvilEgg]

My buddy has a Gateway DX430S.

About 6 month ago his monitor and/ or system started turning of randomly. I took a look at it and could see that the fan on the video card burned off and fell off.

I replaced the burned ATI with a Nvidia, i think it was a 7600. Now that card has the same problem that the fan does not work, the card overheats and shuts down.

The system isn't used for gaming, only pictures, photos, e-mail and stuff like that.

Any idea what causing the cards to burn out? Is it the motherboard or the powersupply?

 

[Harvey]

Is it the motherboard or the powersupply?

That's a definite maybe. If it's the power supply, other components would likely have had problems, as well. A volt meter will tell you. Just power it up, and measure the voltages to ground on one of the four pin Molex power connectors. If they're not close to 5 and 12 volts, you've got a bad supply.

It's less likely that the motherboard is supplying power to the vid card, especially the fan, through an onboard regulator, but if that component failed, it could cause problems.

It's also possible that your friend just got two cards with defective fans. If he noticed that the fan was stalled, he should have shut the machine down and replaced the fan, then. If he didn't see it until it was too late, he's just unlucky.

 

[knght990]

Have you tried testing the 7600 in a different computer to see if it works properly? Does the video card require connection to the PSU? Does the case have limited airflow?

A quick google search found problems with runaway case fans (check to see if the case fan has failed). The fix is a bios update. http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/2-2439912445.shtml

 

[Zap]

Hello EvilEgg, and welcome to Anandtech Forums.

When you checked out the systems, were the fans dirty? I say this because I've seen fans clogged with dirt after a half year, and fans clogged with smoke residue (chain smoker) after only two weeks! Clogged fans = overheating = fans dying and falling off.